The Hindu Business Line : State plans infrastructure finance corpn for tourism

`Responsible tourism' will be a major thrust area in the State's tourism policy to ensure that the benefits of tourism are shared by the local community.

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Thiruvananthapuram March 6 The Kerala Government is planning to set up an `infrastructure finance development corporation' for mobilising funds to develop better facilities for tourism in the State.

The Minister for Tourism and Home, Mr Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, said in reply to questions in the Assembly on Tuesday that a special cell would be formed in the Tourism Department for attracting investors to the tourism sector.

He said that a `home-stay policy' would be formulated to encourage the concept for providing accommodation to tourists. There are only 8,000 classified rooms in the State against a demand for 20,000 rooms and the home-stay concept could bridge the gap to a large extent, he said.

The Minister said that `responsible tourism' would be a major thrust area in the State's tourism policy. This is to ensure that the benefits of tourism are shared by the local community and also to see that tourism development projects did not cause any environmental hazards.

TASK FORCE

The Department has formed a task force to study and frame guidelines for implementing `responsible tourism'. An international convention on the subject would be held in the State in September this year, he said.

The Government is also planning to promote rural and farm tourism. Another thrust area is backwaters tourism and the Government will step up measures to ensure the safety of tourists, he said.

In 2006, around 4.28 lakh foreign tourists visited the State and this represented an increase of 23.67 per cent over the number of tourists in 2005. Similarly, the number of domestic tourists during the year was about 63 lakh, which was 5.41 per cent more than in the previous year.

SUCCOUR TO FISH WORKERS

The Fisheries Minister, Mr S. Sarma, said that a `fish workers debt relief commission' would be set up to provide support to fish workers. A draft Bill for the purpose would be introduced in the House in the current session itself, he added.

The Government was also planning to set up 200 `matsya bhavans' in the State and 100 of them would be in place this year itself, he said.

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